John is totally correct. I have one of these that has housed my 80m array
switchbox for a number of years (5 or 6) and it has gotten quite yellow
even in our DC-area sunlight. I plan to use some dark green plastic spray
paint to avoid that issue here.

73, Pete N4ZR

At 09:27 AM 12/17/2004, W0UN -- John Brosnahan wrote:

At 07:38 AM 12/17/2004, you wrote:

I need to put some relays way out in a field to control some receiving
antennas. I have a pretty nice grey plastic, gasketed junction box that
I can use, and will use one-hole chassis-mount coax connectors for the RF
lines, but I'm a little stuck on the control lines. These are 12 volts
at very low current. Ideally I'd like to have some sort of connectors
that would mount in the side of the plastic box without compromising the
weatherproof character of the box. I know that I could use a body-mount
trailer connector but they are awfully large. Any better thoughts?

Pete--

This is not an answer to your connector question and I would be interested
in what
you find as well.

But I have used the gray plastic NEMA boxes myself and have found that
they tend to
get discolored and even somewhat distorted over the years from UV
light. Which
is pretty bad in CO, but could be an issue anywhere. When/if I use them
again I think
I will put a coat of paint on the outside of the box just to provide some
UV protection
to the plastic. Possibly house paint but not sure how it works on the
plastic. But there
is a new Krylon spray paint specifically for plastic. So I might use
that only, or
as a primer for some house paint.

Guess I don't have THE answer on the UV protection. But I wanted to make you
aware that my experience was that the gray plastic deteriorated somewhat over
the years. On my boxes it discolored but it also warped a bit and the seal no
longer fit right.

BTW You can NEVER seal anything outside. You MUST add a drain hole to allow
any condensation to drain out.